New Year, New Outlook
The New Year is off to a good and auspicious start. The months of negotiations and horse-trading over the formation of a state-level government appear finally to be over.
Forming coalitions to build governments and thereby convert the electorate’s will into effective administrations is a difficult and time-consuming task in all democracies. Indeed, some Western European countries have also been struggling to build coalitions and form governments in the wake of elections last year in ways that seems to resemble some of the frustrations of the past few months in
What is encouraging about Wednesday’s agreement over the formation of a government is that the parties achieved it themselves with minimal intervention from the international community. This is in line with the philosophy I laid out when taking up my position as High Representative and EU Special Representative just under a year ago, namely that I would not intervene in problem-solving where solutions were properly the responsibility of
The ability to form governments within a reasonable timeframe is also critical to meeting the ownership challenge necessary for transition to take place in
Clearly, a new administration is not yet in place and much work remains to be done to ensure that
Wednesday’s agreement, nevertheless, provides substantial cause for optimism. Party leaders demonstrated a willingness to make necessary compromises and to accommodate each others’ positions to agree a common programme. This is precisely the kind of pragmatic approach that politicians need to demonstrate to take responsibility for
The programme itself places
In order to fulfil the conditions for signing an SAA and help make
Drawing up a programme that all coalition partners can agree on is only the first step towards the creation of an effective government. The test of the government will be the way in which it seeks to develop policies to back up this programme and address key issues, such as constitutional reform, on which there are currently diverging positions.
Electioneering and then the lack of a government put a brake on the reform process for much of last year. In the meantime, the many pressing issues facing this country did not go away. It is critical, therefore, that the new government comes together as soon as possible and that it and parliament focus on the reform agenda and address the many outstanding issues that can contribute both to
Christian Schwarz-Schilling is the international community’s High Representative and the European Union’s Special Representative in